"You're Better Off With Winter Tyres" Says Continental

Everyone who loves summer will be miserable just now, me being one of them, because summer is pretty much over and today, up here in Scotland, it is very cold and wet. The weather forecasters are saying that this year winter will probably be as harsh as the last two years which is fantastic news(!)

Instead of moaning about it though we should think about the precautions we should take when it comes to driving in the forthcoming harsh conditions. There are the usual ones like make sure you have blankets and flasks full of hot drinks in the car with you as well as taking some extra snacks just in case you get stranded and that you should allow extra time for your journeys to reduce the risk of accidents as well as reducing your speed. One thing tyre maker Continental says we should think about is fitting winter tyres. Well we put boots on our feet instead of trainers during winter if you think about it.

So why fit winter tyres? Well, when braking in winter conditions with normal tyres your stopping distance will be much greater as the stopping distance you would get if you fitted winter tyres to your car. Continental said to Autocar that if you were breaking on a wet road from 62mph on a day where temperatures were 7 degrees Celsius or less your stopping distance will be 4.8 meters better with winter tyres. They also said, "Motorist think that winter tyres are just for snow and ice but infact if you are going to fit one tyre all year round you are better off with winter tyres." This means that the inital cost of winter tyres would be more beneficial if your car wore them all year round.

Continental carried out a survey and found that three million motorists had an accident during the big freeze in 2010 and 45% of drivers surveyed admitted to near misses.

It's not just Continental thinking about us though, car manufacturers are too. If you're a BMW customer you can go to the local dealership, pay £30 and they will swap your tyres for winter ones and store the original tyres until next summer. Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Toyota and Suzuki are also offering similar winter tyre packages.

Even Chas Hallet, editor of What Car?, said last month, "Winter tyres make for much safer winter driving, so we would encourage all motorists to change their tyres in the colder months. Used in this way a set of winter tyres will last motorists several years."

So winter tyres are sounding like a very wise move. A great choice if you want greatly reduce your chances of being in an accident this winter but there is a catch. Some insurance companies said last year that if you were to fit winter tyres to your car this counts as a modification. So it's best to double check with them about their policies when it comes to changing the tyres on your pride and joy.

I'm personally hoping winter won't be as bad as the last couple of years and that there will only be little bits of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but that seems like wishful thinking.